Gonzo Lawmakers - Day 9

A daily recap of the Georgia Public Broadcasting show "Lawmakers". The show airs weekdays at 7:00pm with a replay at 5:30am the following weekday.

Day 9

* Gold Dome. Good. Anchors. Good.

* The GPB Radio segment tonight is from the Macon bureau. Atlanta residents forced to listen to Sousa marches.

* Casey Time!

* The Lite Guv wants to keep the Property Tax Relief Grant. This puts him in opposition to the Governor. He wants to double the Homestead Exemption in case they can't fund the grant in the future. Isn't tax talk fun! He also wants to cap the ability of locals to reassess property forcing them to adjust millage rates. The Mayor's Council or whatever it's called is not going to like that.

* Rep. Jerry Keen (R-St. Simons) also wants to deal with the problem by capping assessments. With both houses heading towards the same target it's likely we're going to see some version of this thing.

* Minoo!

*My lord, we went straight from the property tax to the stripper tax. There has to be a joke in there somewhere. There are three bills here: add a fee to strip club cover charges, expand the requirement for reporting child exploitation from parents and caregivers to anyone and increase the age requirement for strippers from 18 to 21. Things got a little odd here. Minoo says that the funds raised through the stripper tax would go to aid the "victims". Rep. Renee Untermann says it will go to "help these girls". I'd heard these funds would go towards child exploitation victims (which is bad enough since except in the hobgoblin fantasies of the narrow minded there's zero connection) but if this thing is going towards some half-assed stripper reclamation project - well good lord, I just don't know what to say. Here's hoping it was just a couple of poorly worded phrases.

* Poison peanuts again. Sen. John Bulloch (R-My Neck of the Woods) wants food companies to actually tell us all when they are slopping the salmonella in our sustenance. What an idea! He also has a jar of Peter Pan peanut butter on the well which is both weird and funny.

* Casey Time! He wants to get to the bottom of the poison peanuts. Imagine that.

* Super speeders again. Valerie Edwards is up this time and I can tell by the background they are still using the same live shot. I have to get down there and witness the circus of the juggling mics. Oh yeah - super speeders. If you think you've heard these stories before, you have. The byzantine nature of law passing is more than just School House Rock simplicity so we will hear the same hot button issues over and over again until they wind their way to passage or doom.

* Sen. Jim Cole (R-Forsyth, the town not the county) introduced the super speeder bill. How delicious. If you've ever had the chance to pass through Monroe County on I-75, you know why this is funny. Gonza PSA - if you are headed southbound on 75, be sure to slow to the speed limit as you take the big sweeping left curve right after the Johnstonville Rd exit.

* The fancy traffic video now has sound effects. Sirens.

* Zero Based Budgeting unanimously passed the Senate. Another win for Lite Guv candidate David Shafer.

* The House passed its first bill today. Told you it's a slow process. And what did it entail? Renaming committees. Not kidding.

* Speaker Richardson is giving the new kids the "voting cards lecture". You ain't supposed to vote with someone else's machine. Monogamous machine manipulation is a good thing.

* Here's Britanny Evans. Same live shot.

* We have another protest. Seniors protesting budget cuts. I just can't make fun of this. I may be headed toward hell already, but there's no reason to grease the slide.

* No poll results today. I'm guessing they decided to let the polls roll for more than one day. Given time they might hit triple digit vote totals.

* Here comes the "Leadership Series" and first up is newly announced Guv candidate and House Minority Leader Dubose Porter. Let's see if we get the preacher or the pastor.

* And they are already talking taxes. Gonna be hard to preach on that. Oh, he hit the ponds in Perry thing again and the Milledgeville Veterans hospital cuts. We are going to hear about that VA for the next 18 months. Advocates having shovel ready projects to receive the manna from D.C.

* Whoops! "Let's make Georgia part of the partnership that shares in coming out of this economic depression or recession. Whatever you want to call it". Whatevah!

* GPB Radio time. WABE listeners cover your ears. Josephine Bennett of Macon talked to some school nurses about the prospect of being cut. Bibb County has 15 nurses for 25,000 students. Good gracious!

* Jekyll Island. I swear I've seen this committee footage before. I remember seeing that Rep scratch his head. Hmmmmm. This is probably important stuff but it involves bonds and debt and that makes my eyes glaze over.

* Back to SB-31 which would allow Georgia Power to bill for plants not yet built. On his show today, WSB's Clark Howard called this thing a dud. Good enough for me! (Also Jason Pye has an excellent write-up peeling this particular onion).

* Sen. Kasim Reed (D - Not Yet Declared Candidate for Atlanta Mayor) wants to allow Atlanta citizens to vote on a resolution to increase property taxes to fund more police. "It is our hope candidly that the mayor and council, because they can act faster than we can, we'd love it...if the mayor and council said we don't need the help of the Senate...we'll go ahead an assess a millage increase". Yes children, I'm pretty sure that was aimed at his potential future opponent Mary Norwood. Snap!

* No bands. No choirs. There was just too much news to cover. But get well Rep. Brooks Coleman! That's a wrap!